Elections board disqualifies petitions of three candidates

By William K. Alcorn

alcorn@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Petitions of three candidates who filed to run in the Nov. 8 general election were disqualified by the Mahoning County Board of Elections during a special meeting Wednesday.

Petitions for all other candidates and issues for the Nov. 8 election were certified, as was the result of the Boardman Township 3.85-mill police levy approved by voters in a special election Aug. 2.

Petitions disqualified for technical reasons were those of incumbents Louis Chine Jr., seeking re-election to the Austintown Board of Education, and Dan Stanton, seeking re-election to New Middletown Village Council.

Signatures on two of Chine’s petitions were invalidated because he miscounted and declared an incorrect number of signatures on his petitions. Several signatures on Stanton’s petitions were illegally collected before the date entered on the document. Both were considered “fatal errors” and resulted in automatic disqualification, said Board of Elections Director Thomas P. McCabe.

Mike Write, who was seeking a seat on the Youngstown City Schools Board of Education, collected insufficient valid signatures. McCabe said 32 of the 160 signatures on Write’s petitions were declared invalid, leaving him short of the required 150 valid signatures.

There are 14 tax issues and 15 nontax issues, including 12 involving liquor sales, on the Nov. 8 ballot.